I wasn’t too surprised when my publisher announced, after the copy edit had been complete, that she didn’t like my title, and she’d like to ask the copy editor to brainstorm a few ideas. I hadn’t been married to...

I need to start by saying that I have been a medical social worker for 40 years. That was how I viewed myself. That was my identity. The only writing I did was in hospital medical records. Until one day when I saw the family of my patient outside in...

I was on a coaching call recently with a memoirist who had just read through her whole manuscript after we finished her developmental edit, and she sheepishly brought up something that had surprised her. “I can’t believe how many...

In previous posts I've addressed my tendency to overuse certain words, phrases, or gestures, for example she bit her lip and she walked home slowly. To solve the problem I use the "find" option on Microsoft Word to catch...

Have you ever been immersed in a book only to read some dialogue that stops you in your tracks, and not in the good way? I’m talking unrealistic dialogue, where you stop reading and think to yourself, “No way, that doesn’t sound...

At a recent industry event, I found myself chatting with the prolific New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons, who has had great success with her thriller books. It's easy to confuse thrillers, mysteries, and suspense novels, so I asked CJ...